In a silver halide color photographic material, color images are formed by reacting dye-forming couplers (hereinafter, are referred to as couplers) and an aromatic primary amine developing agent which is oxidized by color developing after light-exposing the color photographic material. In general, in the color image forming process, a color reproducing process by a subtractive color process is used and for reproducing blue, green, and red, color images of yellow, magenta, and cyan which are in the complementary color relations of blue, green, and red, respectively are formed.
For forming yellow color images, an acylacetamide coupler or a malondianilide coupler is generally used as a yellow dye-forming coupler (hereinafter, is referred to as a yellow coupler); for forming magenta color images, a 5-pyrazolone coupler or a pyrazolotriazole coupler is generally used as a magenta coupler; and for forming cyan color images, a phenol coupler or a naphthol coupler is generally used as a cyan coupler.
The yellow dye, the magenta dye, and the cyan dye obtained from these couplers are generally formed in silver halide emulsion layers or layers adjacent thereto each having a color sensitivity to the radiation rays which are in a complementary color relation to the radiation rays absorbed by the dye.
Now, as a yellow coupler, in particular, a yellow coupler for image formation, an acylacetamide coupler such as a benzoylacetanilide coupler and a pivaloylacetanilide coupler is generally used. Since the benzoylacetanilide coupler generally has a coupling activity with the oxidized product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent at developing and also forms a yellow dye having a large molecule extinction coefficient, the coupler is mainly used for color photographic materials for photographing, which require a high sensitivity, in particular, for color negative films, and since acylacetamide coupler is excellent in the spectral absorption characteristics and the fastness of the yellow dye formed, the coupler is mainly used for color papers and color reversal films.
In addition, JP-A-52-20023 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), European Patent 570,006A, U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,709, etc., disclose yellow couplers having specific structures but these yellow couplers are yet insufficient in the coloring property, the fastness to light, heat, and humidity, the aging stability of emulsion under refrigeration (hereinafter sometimes referred to as cold storage stability of emulsion with the passage of time), etc., for practical use.
Also, recently, it has been desired to provide silver halide color photographic materials at a low cost by using inexpensive couplers. However, couplers produced by using inexpensive raw materials have the faults that they are inferior in coloring property and the cold storage stability of the silver halide emulsions containing the couplers with the passage of time is inferior since the couplers have low solubility in high-boiling point organic solvents. In particular, there is a tendency that these couplers capable of satisfying the coloring property have a low solubility in high-boiling point organic solvents, and on the contrary the couplers capable of satisfying the solubility have low coloring property. Furthermore, the dyes obtained from these couplers are insufficient in the image fastness and thus the development of couplers capable of forming dyes having a high coloring property has been desired.